Part of raising a well-rounded child is the task of assigning them responsibilities at an early age, such as helping with household chores. These activities don’t need to be associated with the “more work, less fun” idea when there are ways to actually make children interested in washing the dishes or making their beds. To help you out, here is a list of effective ideas that you can incorporate with household chores to make the chores more exciting and fun.

Go Mobile
In an article from Verizon, editor in chief Brian Malina suggests that parents use apps to persuade kids to help out. Aside from putting the fun in household work, these digital tools act as a personal organizer to help adults keep track of their young one’s activities. You Rule Chores, one of the apps that Malina suggests, presents the number of works kids have accomplished in a comprehensive infographic. This is beneficial especially if you want to compare scores between siblings. If you need visuals to help kids comprehend their duties, PictoPie provides a series of caricatures to help kids visualize the different tasks that they need to do, plus a timer to teach them effective time management.

Go Treasure Hunting
A post from the Natural Child Project said that children have an innate sense of curiosity that makes them want to explore their surroundings. Use this to your advantage by creating a scavenger hunt in your own home. Before you ask them to dig, hide prizes in different places around the home where they will clean up. The concept of money may be a little bit vague for them, so we suggest that parents give other tangible items. These could be in the form of chocolates or made-up coupons that will entitle kids to more privileges such as additional video game hours or a special movie night.

For kids who are visual learners, it might be best if parents provide graphs or images to help kids understand the concept of doing household responsibilities. When parents post chore charts in their home, it will be easier for kids to remember what they have to do. And since the charts are composed of pictures and icons, kids can digest the information quickly. To entice kids even more, the theme of these charts should match kids’ interests. If your child is into video games or superheroes, add his favorite characters to entice him more.

Play Bingo
Create a Bingo day where instead of numbers, you can use the different tasks kids need to do for the day. You can also replace them with pictures of different cleaning assignments. Once kids create a pattern, reward them with food or special privileges.

Aside from helping them remember what to do, a great thing about using this Bingo card is that it gives them the freedom to choose the assignment that they want to finish first.

Although these activities are great ways to motivate our children to be responsible, there are a few points that adults need to remember in order to make this work. First, make sure that you invent challenging tasks because kids love it when their skills are continuously tested. Second, pick out tasks that are appropriate for their age so kids can do it properly and safely. And don’t forget to switch up their routines. Nobody likes it when they get stuck doing the same job for so long, right?

Are there other ways to motivate a child to do household work? Share them with us.

About the author:Kyle Albert has always been interested in tablets, latest trends, startup businesses, fashion, and design. He is also a keen social media user, inclined to share and write about technology and how it can help people with their daily lives, how it can make things easier, and how it helps personal development, be it for kids, adults, or people in every walk of life. You may reach him at hisGoogle+, Linkedin and Twitter: @KyleAlbert9